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Henry Cockburn CB (2 March 1859 – 19 March 1927) was a British diplomat.^[1]

Family

Cockburn was born in Calcutta in 1859. He was a son of Francis Jeffrey Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 8 January 1825 – Brentford, London, 10 July 1893^[2]), a Judge in India and with the Bengal Civil Service, and wife (Calcutta or Westbury, Tasmania, 25 January 1855) Elizabeth Anne (Eliza Ann) Pitcairn (Hobart, Tasmania, 23 September 1831, bap. Hobart, Tasmania, 7 November 1831 – Wycombe, Oxfordshire, 1923). His paternal grandparents were Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn, and his wife Elizabeth Macdowall,^[3] while his maternal grandparents were Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 17 July 1802 – Hobart, Tasmania, 1868) (son of David Pitcairn and Mary Henderson) and his wife (m. Hobart, Tasmania, 30 September 1830) Dorothy/Dorothea Jessy Dumas.

Claud Cockburn, the journalist, was his son and the journalists Alexander Cockburn, Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn are his grandsons.

Biography

Cockburn served in China for 25 years from 1880 as British Consul-General to Beijing and Vice-Consul in Chongqing, China.^[3] In late 1901 Cockburn was appointed to assist Sir James Lyle Mackay, who had been appointed His Majesty's Special Commissioner to conduct negotiations with representatives of China,^[4] The negotiations resulted in the Sino-British "Mackay Treaty," which anticipated the abolition of extraterritoriality in China.

In 1905, Cockburn was appointed Consul-General in Seoul, Korea,^[3] at the beginning of the Japanese occupation.

He was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath.^[3]

Marriage and issue

He married at Totlands Bay, Hampshire, on 9 October 1899 Elizabeth Gordon Stevenson (India Office, Bengal, 11 October 1862, bap. Moulmein, Bengal, 5 November 1862 – ?), daughter of Colonel James Francis John Stevenson (bap. Portsmouth, Hampshire, 8 January 1823 – at sea, 7 December 1873^[5]) (son of Robert Charles Stevenson and wife Alicia Maria Groves/Gronbe^[6]^[7]) and wife (m. Kilmonivaig, Inverness-shire, 19 September 1850) and wife Louisa Cameron Ross (Kilmonivaig, Inverness-shire, 12 October 1829 – ?) (daughter of Ewen Ross and wife (Kilmallie, Argyll, 3 January 1827) Frances "Fanny" Cameron), by whom he had one daughter and one son:^[3]

Louise Margaret Cockburn (China, 16 September 1900 – ?), married to George Raleigh Parkin, and had two daughters:
- Elizabeth Stevenson Parkin (25 December 1928), married to Omar Shakespear Pound (Paris, 10 September 1926 – Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, 2 March 2010), and had issue
- Jane Parkin (between 8 February 1934 and 1935)
Francis Claud Cockburn of Brook Lodge, Youghal, County Cork, Munster, Ireland (Beijing, 12 April 1904 – 15 December 1981)

He died in Tring in 1927.^[1]^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b "Obituary: Mr. Henry Cockburn". The Times. 2 April 1927. p. 17.
^ England and Wales National Probate Calendar, 1893, p. 90: "Cockburn Francis Jeffrey of 2 Kent-avenue Ealing Middlesex gentleman died 10 July 1893 Probate London 25 August to Eliza Anne Cockburn widow Henry Cockburn esquire and Robert Henry Kinsey surgeon Effects £4019 16s. 4d."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.
^ "No. 27367". The London Gazette. 22 October 1901. p. 6846.
^ England and Wales National Probate Calendar, 1875, "Stevenson James Francis John 5 March. The Will of James Francis John Stevenson late a Colonel of the Madras Corps and Commissioner of Arracan British Burmah who died 7 December 1873 at Sea was proved at the Principal Registry by the Reverend Robert Augustus Gordon of 1 Hill-street Berkeley-square in the County of Middlesex Clerk one of the Executors."
^ Robert Charles Stevenson m. Alicia Marion Luke 4 Apr 1816 Calcutta, Bengal, India.
^ "Grave at Calcutta – 'Sacred to the memory of Captain Robert Charles Stevenson, of H.M. 59th Regiment, who departed this life at Calcutta, on the 4th December 1826, aged 40 years, leaving a widow and five helpless children to deplore the loss of the best of husbands and fathers.'"
^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995